Board of Supervisors - Regular Meeting

this meeting with the George County Service Authority Board of Directors.

At this time, I'll hand it off to Advisor Bill Davis. Please stand for the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. I've asked a friend of mine, a missionary from Indonesia, Caleb Terpke.

Father, thank you for your love for us, your mercy and your grace. We thank you for your many wonderful blessings on us and the many men and women throughout the history of our nation that have sacrificed their blood, sweat, and tears, many even their lives, not only in death, but in service to you. We thank you for the men and women here who are serving in your authority in this nation as they've been ordained, the powers that be be ordained of you. And we pray that you bless them and strengthen them and to draw them close to you, give them wisdom as they serve in this area, and that we as a people will be continually grateful and obedient where the obedience must be. And we just pray that you help and bless and draw close to you. And we thank you especially for Jesus who died on the cross for our sins. The whole who put their faith in him did not perish but receive eternal life. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, thanks everybody for coming out tonight. Before we get into things, well, actually I'll go ahead and ask first. Any amendments to the . And then we'll move on. And we'll kick it off with a ceremonial presentation. And then I'll .

Thank you everybody for coming. Thank you Patty for, I didn't get to say hi to you before, but I want to read you your proclamation. Whereas the King George County Service Authority was established in 1992 to provide essential public water and wastewater services to citizens and customers in King George County, and whereas Patty Norris Barker has faithfully served King George County Service Authority for 32 years, dedicating more than three decades of her professional career to the authority, its employees, its board of directors, and customers to serve. And whereas throughout her distinguished tenure as executive assistant, Patty provided invaluable administrative support to the service authority's general managers, Board of Directors and staff helping ensure continuity and effective operations through periods of organizational growth, infrastructure improvements, and leadership transition. And whereas during Patty's years of service, the King George County Service Authority grew from an organization serving approximately 900 customers in its early years to a public utility serving thousands of customers throughout King George County. And Patty's professionalism, dedication, and knowledge contributed to the Authority's ability to make a difference in the growing community. And whereas over the course of her career, Patty became a valuable source of institutional knowledge and organizational continuity, assisting successive general managers, board members, employees, customers, consultants, regulatory partners, and county staff, while preserving an understanding of the history and business of the service authority. And whereas Patty witnessed and supported decades of significant change, including the expansion of the authority's water and wastewater systems, growth in its customer base, evolving regulatory requirements, capital improvement initiatives, changes in leadership, while remaining a constant and dependable presence throughout the organization. And Raz Patty's professionalism, loyalty, reliability, and commitment to public service have earned the respect and appreciation of those with whom she has worked. Her 32 years of dedicated service represent an extraordinary contribution to the history and legacy of the King George County Service Authority. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Kingsbridge County Service Authority Board of Directors hereby recognizes and honors Patty North Barker for 32 years of outstanding and dedicated service and expresses its sincere gratitude for her professionalism, institutional knowledge, loyalty, and unwavering commitment to the authority and community it serves. It further proclaims that the Board of Directors extends its deepest appreciation to Patty for a career defined by dedicated public service and wishes her happiness, and fulfillment in the next chapter of her life, knowing that her contribution will remain an enduring part of the history and legacy of the service. Thank you, Patty. Patty, I have to make one more, but she's been a constant with quite a few general managers we've had, but Patty's always been there. Thank you, everybody, and thank you to the service delivery maintenance for coming to support Patty also, and Tiffany.

One more time.

Appreciate it and thank you everybody for coming to support.

Mr. Solms. Thank you. We go with you. All right before we pick up with a public comment on invite. Before we do public comment on invite that Mister Stewart to make a couple comments.

The chairman I know that. correspondence regarding West or angle Oh aquifer say about that I just caution the board about responding tonight I know that you all want to on to the citizens answer those questions but we are litigation with both AWS and there's an appeal file or to the one too so technically lawsuits out there. I think it's better if you just listen tonight and later.

All right. Thank you, sir. So with that, I'll open public comment. Public comments will be limited to three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comment so that it can be properly included in the public record. And we'll kick it off with Ms. Ann Marie Lovell. You signed in first?

Yeah. Pastor, would you come on up? I don't think we're going to win this argument.

Looks like that she would wait for me to sign in before she signed in, but she don't do that. I am, Lord, I am Pastor Davis, and I vote in the Doblin District, and the missionary tonight, Brother Caleb, is a missionary to Indonesia. We're glad to be taking care of him for three weeks. He's got 11 children, so pray for us, okay? And so anyway, there seems to be verses in the Bible sometimes like John 3, 16 that say it all as a gospel. But Paul says in 1 Timothy, as he's writing a letter to Timothy, and there's another verse that seems to have everything that we need as far as the gospel. And the apostle says in verse 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. That means it's worthy to be received. Listen up. And so worthy of all acceptations that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Anybody qualify? Save sinners of whom I am chief. I noticed the Apostle Paul didn't say who I was chief. He realized without the Lord Jesus Christ, he's still chief sinner. In Christ, we have it all. And we rejoice in that good news. We see in this verse, in the next verse, how be it for this cause. I obtained mercy that in me, first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering. And I pronounce that longsuffering for my life. For a pattern of them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Paul said, I'm the example of the chief sinner. God saved me, so surely he can save anybody else. And that is true. So the Apostle Paul says, he tells us our name. Our name, our description is sinner. And everybody fits that description. And he just claimed to be the worst of them all. And so our name is sinner. Our need, he says in the verse, is for forgiveness or salvation. Christ Jesus came to save into the world. His name is Savior. He came to save sinners. The Bible also tells us in Luke's gospel, he came to seek and to save. That's what was lost. And what did he do? Well, he came. Tonight I left across the street at Tabernacle Baptist Church, and I came over to the courthouse. Before I come here, I was somewhere else before. And so Jesus says he left heaven. He came. He wasn't just born, and that was in his beginning in Bethlehem. He was already here at the beginning of time, in the beginning God. And so He came from heaven to earth, and he did so. He came that if that's a fact, a historical fact that he came, and of course he existed before. And the acceptance is he accepts us. I hear people say all the time we need to accept the Lord. Actually, we receive the Lord. He accepts us. And of course he says he came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Here's an illustration of the grace and the goodness of God. It's an illustration that God will save anybody. We're all sinners. It only takes one sin to make you a sinner. We don't sin because we don't make us a sinner. We sin because that's what we are. Amen. God bless you. Thank you.

I think you're done now.

Hi, my name is Anna-Maria Lobo, and I live in Presidential Lake. I want to thank you for your service to the community, but I want to ask how long it's going to take to fix the air conditioner and the elevator. The elevator has been broken ever since the police left, while the air conditioner, I believe, just broke this summer. Please fix these things. This is the way things were deteriorated in the past. They did not fix the things where they needed to be fixed. Please do not let the old courthouse deteriorate. I know the old courthouse was built between 1922 and 1923, 104 years ago. But in 1960, they remodeled and enlarged in 1973. I feel this building is still OK and can be used for many more years if we take care of it all. About the data centers, I would like to know how we are doing with Amazon. Then they wanted to build their data center from the old Bridgewood plant. They also want to build under the 2023 deal, as well as getting the tax break under the umbrella agreement from the state. Then we are not going to benefit from the taxes from Amazon. Also, the people in King George are worried about the water and electricity that they will use. Farm officials and many of the people of King George are very worried about the impact of the proposed rural development in our county, such as solar farms and energy storage facilities. But who is going to benefit from all these developments? Thank you very much.

Next up, we have Pastor Caleb Turk.

Howdy. I'm from Oklahoma. Caleb Turks, my name. And I really enjoyed being here in Virginia and seeing the great history of our country. I want to read to you the Thanksgiving proclamation of 1777, the first Thanksgiving proclamation, not from a president, but from our Continental Congress, one of my favorite things here. In Congress, November 1st, 1777, for as much as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God, to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received and to implore such further blessing as they stand in need of and having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence but also to smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success. It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise. that at one time and with one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts to consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor, and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins whereby they had forfeited every favor and their humble and earnest supplication, that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to mercifully forgive and blot them out of remembrance, that it may please Him graciously to afford His blessing on the governments of these states respectively, and to prosper the public council of the whole, to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with the wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all human blessings, independence and peace, that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufacturers of the people, and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase, to take schools and seminaries of education so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue, and piety under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom, which consisteth in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. And it is further recommended that servitile labor, and such recreation as though at other times innocent, Maybe I'm becoming the purpose of this appointment you admitted on so solemn an occasion.

Thank you pastor. Except we have a Mike Rutherford. Hold on just a guess or got a grip.

I'm just going to make this quick. I'm in support of Love Thy Neighbor. It's really helped me with being on a fixed income. I can't buy mistakes anymore because I don't go to work. And stakes are around 30 bucks now. You know, that program has really meant a lot to me. And I'm sure there's other people in King George that need it. You know, I mean, sometimes you just have to, you know, for us in the community and I think that's that's pretty fair. I hope you all support that group.

Thank you sir. And now Ryan Ragsdale.

My name is Ryan Ragsdale and I am the executive director of Love Thy Neighbor. Thank you Mike. I want to thank First I want to thank the board for providing funding for the neighbor once again I know this was a tough budget year for the county but it's been tough for everybody budget. So I thank you for supporting the neighbors who are struggling to put food on the table. One of my goals this year is to come before you all at least a few times to report on what we're doing with those taxpayer dollars because we take very seriously the obligation that we have to be good stewards of that money just as you all do. Back during COVID, we started expanding our food pantry. More open hours, more food distributed, more customers served. And we grew so fast that we were burning our volunteers out. So I came before you all a few years ago and asked you for help so I could start paying some salaries. I'm pleased to report that we now have two full-time employees plus a part-time weekend manager. They are all terrific. And by coordinating with our volunteers, they make two things happen. First, food in. We make Pickups every week from retailers. Walmart, BJ's, Costco, Grant Weiss, Lidl, Dollar General, Sheetz, and so on. Those retailers give us the food that is a little past its prime. We haul it back. We sort through it. If it's got any life left, we put it on the shelves and give it away to folks like Mike. So that's food in. That is a lot of work every week. But it lets us provide food out. That's number two. Over the last three months, May, June, July, 450 King George households came to love my neighbor for food assistance. Those 450 households contain 1,300 people. Those 450 households shopped a total of 2,100 times. And they walked away with a grand total of 125,000 pounds of food. That's an average of 59 pounds of food per visit. So I think it's a good return on your investment dollars per pounds ratio. But we are not here as a food pantry to serve numbers. We are here to serve people. So we invited a few of our shoppers like Mike to come out tonight and tell their stories. I don't know if anyone else is here. If they are, I hope you'll appreciate the courage that it takes for them to stand up and give you their story tonight. Thank you. I appreciate you.

I'm not used to talking in front of people, so I'm a little nervous here. But Love Thou Neighbors has helped me for a year and a half. I am also on a fixed income. And it helps a lot, especially when my grandkids come. I'm able to get them some food. And I go every now and then and volunteer there. And they help a lot of people also in my neighborhood. I also take people there from my neighborhood to get food when they can't make ends meet. So I just hope that you all continue to help them so they can continue to help us. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. All right. Is there anybody else? All the people that signed up that we've gone through, is there anyone else who would like to make public comment at this time? Come on up, ma'am, please. And please introduce yourself and give us your address.

Hello. My name is Barbara Gay. I thought it did nonprofit call the girls though. And I'm trying to see if I can get to George to support it. What it basically does I retired last year at the 43 years. And I wanted to give back to you. By doing that I noticed that the girls in the King George Westmoreland colonial beach we're not getting the imminent product. So I started buying these products. And I'm getting a lot of support from perfect for who supported me to hope King George only be in Westmoreland. Also, I've been giving items to the haven. They get cheap in town. I partner with the young lady in bumpers, but then who gives me these products. Now all of it is free, but it takes my time and I'm doing it on my own right now. And I'm asking King George to see if I can get them to support it. I'm giving back to the community. I'm not getting anything out of it. I just want to support my community. So if I need to show you all something I just came to listen to everyone else like I know why can't I get up and talk about the girl though. In this feminine product and also I give them close if the young ladies desire I go to the school board. Mary Fisher. I give those products to her and then I go to Carlin Washington in Westmoreland I give those. And the young lady is the nurse in colonial beach. I just recently gave her some. So I just want to support the young lady in the community and like you said it is a fulfilling to me. Mondays and Tuesday I help the Fredericksburg only shelter given food out. I'm not necessarily given the food they are I just support it. And also I don't know if you're in one ever heard the closet in Fredericksburg. Okay, so I so in return he helped me. Trying to help King George Westmoreland and colonial be my range is a little read out. But this is what I desire to do until I move on out of this county. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you.

Don't mind if we hook her up with Matt.

Is there anything you can do to help?

That's why I may look for opportunities directly or indirectly through something like that. There's something to... Mr.

Chair, there's also a new group at King Church Community Closet in the Oak Grove Church Community Closet. They collect clothes and stuff that they might... Yeah, I just wanted to bring that up because you might be able to get some...

All right, anybody else who would like to make public comments, please.

Hello, my name is Amanda Caley. I wanted to thank you all on behalf of Love Thy Neighbor as well. In 2023, I was introduced to Love Thy Neighbor by my neighbor. I was a weekly shopper and I was going through a hard time. I don't know what I would have done if it wasn't for Love Thy Neighbor. In 2024, I was still a shopper, but I became a volunteer as well. I do reside in Spotsylvania, but I would travel 25 to 30 minutes to come to Love Thy Neighbor because in my area in Spotsylvania, there is nothing... anywhere near where I live that is can compare to Love Thy Neighbor. If there's the pantries, the resources available are very slim to none. I know the food bank is right there but Love Thy Neighbor as you all know is a shopper's choice and it gives it empowers the neighbors to choose their own foods and as well as the volunteers there They really uphold the spirit of community and respect, and it made me want to become a volunteer. So I became a volunteer, and then last year in 2025, I was offered the position of volunteer coordinator. So I am now employed by Love Thy Neighbor, and that is partly due to you all. So thank you so much, and I hope you continue to support us. Thank you.

Thank you. I thought you were raising your hand. I'm like, you only get one. Anybody else? Yes, sir.

Come on up.

I'm very moved by this organization, and I would like to do something on my part, too. I'm going to write you a check for $5,000 tonight and see what I can do to have others you know, a great cause. I'm really moved about it.

And that's all. So, I hope others . So, all right. Thanks. All right. Who else we got? She's coming. She's got a checkbook in hand. I can see it.

Hello. My name is Frankie Riley. I am the part-time member of Love Thy Neighbor. I am the weekend manager. Like many people before me, I'm coming to ask you for your continued support. I've been working there for roughly three to four months now. When I first became involved with Love Thy Neighbor, I don't think I realized how much of an impact it would eventually have on me personally. I came here thinking I was going to help other people, and I have. But somewhere along the way, Love Thy Neighbors started helping me, too. This organization has given me a place where I feel like the work I do matters. Every weekend, I get to see firsthand what can happen when people come together with one goal, and that's to take care of their neighbors. It's easy to look at a food pantry and think you're simply giving out food. But I've learned that it's so much more than that. We're giving people dignity, kindness, and support. Sometimes just the research. Somebody's listening. What Love Thy Neighbor has done for me, I get to watch it do for people throughout King George County every single day. I see families come through our doors who are doing everything they can but still need a little help making it. I see parents trying to make sure that children have enough peace. I see seniors, individuals living alone, and people who may simply just go through a difficult life get to help them. On the other side of it, I see volunteers giving up their time because they want to serve their community from completely different backgrounds, working side by side. I see local businesses, organizations, volunteers, donors, and community members coming together for people they may never even . That's what Love Thy Neighbor is so special. It doesn't just provide resources for King George. It brings King George together. And the impact doesn't stop when someone leaves with groceries. When a family can receive from us, that money may be put towards electricity bill, their rent, medication, gas to get to work, school supplies, or even another necessity. When someone walks through our doors, they aren't treated like a number. They're our neighbors. We learn their names. We hear their stories. We celebrate with them when things get better. And we try to be there when things get harder. That kind of support makes the community stronger. That's why continued funding for Love Thy Neighbor is so important. When King George County invests in Love Thy Neighbor, you're not simply funding a food pantry or putting food on the shelf. You're investing in King George families. You're investing in our seniors. You're investing in children. You're investing in volunteers. And you're investing in a community that's proven that when given the resources, it will step up and take care of its own. Every dollar of support gives us the ability to reach further serve better and say yes to more of our neighbors who need it. I came to love the neighbor because I wanted to get something back to my community and instead I found a community gave something back to me. I hope that can George County working and behind love the neighbor that we can be doing exactly what our names.

Thank you miss Riley.

The DEQ completed a study on this. Their chief conclusion is that there is a limited capacity for significant new water withdrawal. They went on to estimate that in the western part of the The new capacity for withdrawals was limited to about 30,000 gallons a day. That may seem like a lot, but this week I read in the newspaper a legal notice that Amazon has applied to the DEQ for permission to withdraw an average of 17,500 gallons a day. That says over half what the DEQ itself has estimated. the buffer that we can afford to lose. They're going to use that water according to the legal notice for obviously employees, flushing toilets, but also for their lawn and landscaping irrigation, for building maintenance. This is a quote from a newspaper. Washing paved surfaces, buildings, stationary and mobile equipment. That was put off by that. That's just one day. Well, it's really outraged, in my view, that the D.C. state, they have made a tentative decision to issue that permit. I'm talking about groundwater withdrawal. Local campuses only have to get off the ground. In case I wanted to bring your attention, probably you all are of service. I invite you to comment on this reciprocally. Thank you for .

Thank you. The videos who would like to. Anybody getting correspondence. We'll have to go first now have you and then I've got a couple of them.

Well I do want to check with Mister Stewart because this is. They've asked for it to be read its public comment on the withdrawal can I. It's been your statement this is from a citizen.

Yes. Suggestion was numbers.

But I can read this. Absolutely. And I will start with it. This is from who lives in Werman Drive in King George, Virginia. So it is, dear Ms. Kelly, that is the person at DEQ for the permit. I'm writing as a concerned homeowner in King George County to formally submit my comments regarding the above reference draft permit for Amazon Data Services. I strongly object to the issuance of this permit as it is currently written due to the severe and unacceptable risk it poses to the private wells, finances, broader community well-being of my family and my neighbors. My primary concern is the projected drawdown of the Potomac aquifer. Public notice states that the computer modeling predicts the aquifer could experience one foot of drawdown due to this withdrawal. This is not a minor inconvenience. A one foot drawdown translates directly to a one foot increase in the lift required for every private well pump in the affected area. This increased lift will cause residential well pumps to run longer and consume significantly more electricity and lead to a substantial rise in our monthly energy bill all to access a resource that has been freely available to us. The modeling only accounts for the drawdown from this single permit. It does not account for the cumulative effect of this withdrawal in an area where the Potomac aquifer is already under stress. As the public is aware, this is a giant body of fresh water that millions of people rely on for drinking water, and we are being asked to bear the cost and risk of its depletion for a commercial entity. I'm also gravely concerned about the potential for the water level in my well to fall below the pump intake, which would result in catastrophic costs for me and my neighbors to replace or deepen our pumps and wells, with the average well in Virginia being over 200 feet deep. Furthermore, I am deeply concerned about the massive strain this data center replaced in our local power grid. Data centers are enormous consumers of electricity. It goes on there's a lot more to this and I will just send it over to miss fish So it can be recorded in a minute because there's a lot more to read Thank you All right, thank you, mr. Stroud Yes, sir this Letter is regarding a question access to the dog heritage trail and it's from mr.

Page Rosado Donna Ranch. Dear members of the Board of Supervisors, I'm writing respectfully asking George County Board of Supervisors to support equestrian access to the Dahlgren Heritage Road Trail and to advocate for the inclusion of equestrian uses. Discussions continue regarding participation in discussion. One thing became very clear as a discussion last night. Now is the time for our equestrian community to become involved and have a voice. We learned that establishing equestrian use of the Dahlgren Heritage Trail will in the future transfer the trail through the Commonwealth of Virginia. Last night, approximately 22 members of our local question and community gathered at Valorant to discuss the dog heritage trail and more broadly, opportunities for equestrians in King George County. Supervisor Ken Stroud and the Dirt Dog Heritage Trail. President Lloyd Shillam before the trail is transferred to the Commonwealth is critical to preserving that opportunity in the future. I am therefore asking the Board of Supervisors to support fresh and use the Dog Heritage Trail now and communicate that support to those involved in decisions regarding the trail's future. King George is a rural community with a significant population of horse owners, farms, equestrians, and equine organizations. Yet, residents have very few public recreation opportunities within our county where they can safely participate in equestrian activities. As co-founder of a nonprofit organization, King George is our finest position when I see how it affects our young people. Colorado Ranch currently opens our private facility to our local forage equestrians so they can have a place to meet. They did not otherwise have a home for those activities and just doing some of these young people represent our community state competition. It is a prepare for that competition they work in a damp field in a private residence because there's no public question arena or question parking King George County available for them to use these are young people are choosing to spend their time learning horsemanship animal care responsibility leadership teamwork and sportsmanship. They're working hard to represent King George at the state level. I believe that is something our county should be proud of this should I want to encourage Ballard Ranch is happy to help where we can. We will continue opening our doors to support our community, but a private nonprofit should not be the only option available to equestrian youth. We simply need a place to meet, learn, practice, and grow. Opening the dirt to equestrian youth will not solve the larger need for equestrian recreational opportunities, but it would be an opportunity to first step towards recognizing that equestrians are part of King George Recreational Community, too, and that their needs deserve consideration when our county plans for recreational outdoor activities. Russians can also be good partners maintain protect the church or resource or community understand stewardship trail that equipment land management is possible because we're sharing records for spaces with appropriate rules and doesn't need access to questions that are true use and success we share the public resources. That's nice meeting demonstrated that our Christian community is ready to become involved 22 people came together a relatively short notice because this matters to them there are many more questions families farms and young people talking George who were not. in the room, but it is our other needs represented as well. We want to be part of the conversation. We want to work collaboratively with the county, their organization, landowners, commonwealth, and other trail users. And we want to ensure King George grows and recreational opportunities to develop equestrians are not left out of the conversation. Therefore, I respectfully ask the Board of Supervisors to support establishing responsible equestrian access to the Algonquin Heritage Trail Prior to its transfer to the commonwealth encourage the appropriate parties to work with representatives of the local question we need to determine how that actually implemented include representatives of the question community and discussions of all the trails parts of the recreation and recreation planning and begin recognizing and considering the recreational needs in Georgia question in youth and families as a county plans for street.

Thank you for up there.

Next thing thank you I think we're good great job. Good night. All right. This one. It's from my name is Larry Kessler and I live in the dog district. All right talk about 2 issues versus another notification of projects in the county. I like to propose an update notification people who own property next the project should be notified in person like things happen now. I think a mail notification for those in the area of concern around the project should go out as well. Things like solar farms, data centers, power plants have the ability to affect people beyond those, just those properties that border them. This puts them in the area of concern. I think a two to three mile buffer around the project for notification to be clear. I'm not saying anyone needs to go out and knock on doors that far, just mail out flyers, which would provide greater notification minimal costs. Secondly, there's discussion about allowing horseback riding on the dog and hare, heritage railroad trails, DHRT, especially as it is within the works to make it a part of Caledon State Park. This would be amazing for the equestrian community here in King George, as currently there is nowhere to ride within the county. The county has a letter endorsing the merger, which I'm under the impression it hasn't sent yet to the state. I would like the board to not send that letter off and instead rewrite it to include allowing horse riding on the DHRT. This is a huge opportunity for the county, and I would appreciate the board's assistance in bringing this to the county. Thank you for your time, Larry Kessler. I also got one. I need to open it up, but it's actually a memo inside the email. This is from Seth Williamson, the Corresponding Secretary for the Northern Virginia Gun Club. The Northern Virginia Gun Club opposes the integration of the Dahlgren Railroad Heritage heritage trail in the Caledon State Park. During a recent well-attended club meeting, several of our members expressed concerns about efforts by the DRHE to have the trail incorporated in the Caledon State Park. One of our members raised this issue at our meeting. He had learned that Cambridge Board of Supervisors agreed to a request by the trail leadership to provide a letter of support to the state for this acquisition. Several members voiced reservations about a possible purchase. No member present at the time voice support for the trail to become part of the Caledon State Park. We remain concerned as we noted in 2022 letter to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, DCR, over several issues related to acquisition of the trail by the state. Our primary concerns are as follows. First, state acquisition of the trail creates substantial risk for the Northern Virginia shooting facility and the Northern Virginia Gun Club to continue our current operations. As a gun club, our Second Amendment rights are critical to the operation of our facility. Recent anti-Second Amendment efforts by our state legislature highlight our concern that the state acquisition of the trail, which bisects our property, could limit our ability to freely exercise our right to own our property. The cost to acquire and maintain the trail by the state does not create an additional benefit to the current users of the trail beyond those which currently exist. We note that in 2022, DCR estimated that it would cost $23 million to bring the trail up to state standards. Our property is bisected by the trail, which is currently under private ownership. Transfer of ownership to the state would solidify this bisection in perpetuity. Northern Virginia Gun Club is a 550-member private club which has been safely operated. Our range is of over 230 acres of land since 1969. Over half of our members are King George residents. In addition to hosting rifle, pistol, and shotgun and archery matches, most of which are open to the public, the club shares our facilities with several area youth groups. including Boy Scouts of America and the Fredericksburg Christian School shotgun team. Additionally, these individuals contribute to the local economy through the purchase of food, fuel, and retail goods in Kings Forge when visiting our facility. We coexist with the trail, and we have taken extensive steps to be good neighbors, not only to the trail users, but to all of our nearby property owners. However, we oppose the integration of the trail into Caledon State Park. We are a gun club, and our operation is inherently intertwined with our Second Amendment rights. Considering that the trail bisects our property, we remain concerned that state ownership of the trail could limit our ability to freely exercise our rights and threaten our operation as a gun club. That's all. Is there any other correspondence? Seeing none. Mr. Dines, do you have anybody online? All right. Seeing none, at this time I will close public comment. Thanks, everybody, for participating in that. And we will kick it off with reports for the members of the board. Mr. Metz.

Thank you. Speaking of the trail, I had the pleasure of volunteering for the 50K the other weekend on the trail. It is interesting to see the amount of tourism that those events bring to the county and how important King George is to the larger Virginia tourism. We were at the turnaround marker. And even there, the turnaround where there weren't a ton of people, one couple was from Winchester. They're supporting a family member that was making the run. I see, fortunately most of our neighbor people left, but yes, glad to see them come out tonight and talk about the service that they provide here to our community members. If you've never volunteered with that community project, I strongly suggest you reaching out. It's been something we've supported for a long time here in the community and to see the growth that has occurred which also kind of a lead to the the amount of need that is generated in this area so happy that they were able to come out and talk about. They've been able to provide over the last quarter.

All right, thank you for this.

Thank you so much, thank you for a bit it came out in for it. It's a spark or something that Patty and also love the neighbor and when you spoke on certain matters, thank you. I'm going to make this very quick. I attended a VACO board of director meeting last week on Friday and Thursday. We talked about many hot topics concerning laws just passed and those to come possibly. A big discussion on electricity costs and transmission lines. And a common theme I heard from all the supervisors, especially in southwest Virginia, was people are very upset about flock cameras, transmission lines, data centers, and state mandates. So that is a common thread across the commonwealth. I also wanted to point out that I did meet with two representatives that is the one data center that's brought from Rickson Vans and that was just to discuss when on the agenda we will be putting the MOU for the service authority and I stressed that we need to talk to Mr. Hamilton to find it out and go through Mr. Stewart before we could get it on the agenda so I just want to be transparent with the public is about the MOU for the service authority and then lastly Give a little fun fact for you all. King George High School did not have a nickname originally. We all know it as the Foxes, believe it or not. But sometime in the 50s, there was an article, I think it was about the basketball team. And I think it was the Freeland Star. And they wrote King George is cagey as a fox or foxes or cage. Somehow they said cagey and fox together. And then that stuck. People liked it. And that's how the Foxes got their nickname. And since football season starting and all the fall sparks, I just thought people would like to know that. And it was interesting because I wanted to look up how many high schools in the United States have foxes. Because when I first looked it up a long time ago, I think it was like 2010, we were the only one. There's now 17 schools in the United States that have a fox as a mascot, either a regular fox or a red fox. And one of the reasons I thought this was nice, why people pick foxes for a mascot, because it's very unique, is it represents qualities like resilience, adaptability, and a strong sense of community. Foxes live in packs. which aligns with school values of teamwork and looking out for one another. Thank you.

All right, thank you. Mr. O'Botham.

I just want to, I'll keep this, I just want to, how the county comes together and a lot of these, good to see all the individuals. heartwarming.

Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you. Last week, Jim Lynch from the Dogger and Rover Heritage Trail, he had invited and brought a couple of ladies over to my office and we had a talk. One of them was Sally It's A-U-N-G-I-E-R. So I'm probably mispronouncing it. She's a secretary and chair of the Trails Committee for the Virginia Horse Council Board of Directors. And she had another lady with her that goes by Jeb. And it was a very pleasant meeting. And they were very pro including equestrian activities on the trail. and worked to, I think, bring some things together there. She also provided a number of documents. She's worked with a number of other trails in the states to bring equestrian activities there and has already dealt with those challenges. So with that, last night we had a meeting at Ballard Ranch, which you know about now because I read the letter from Ms. Page. I'm very grateful for her hosting the local horse community out there. There are a lot more than people just showed up, but it was a very positive event, I think. Ms. Slim and Mr. Lynch were there, and they committed to having horseback riding on the trail. They asked that the horse group provide some rules for that and invited them to the DIRT meetings. DIRT is the term that they're using. Lovingly, they said, for the over here to show a trail. The meeting went well. With that, I was asked to provide some comments on the letter going to the state and I asked that that letter not go forward and voted on the last board meeting. I said I'd not go forward until question activities, conversations had taken place and they had been included on the trail. So that's that's why had some of the comments, I believe the army. So with that I would just like to thank the people who came out that especially regarding. Love thy neighbor because I think everybody agrees that's a that's awesome activity there. I'm very grateful. Not only for them, but also Mister Mitchell for his donation.

All right, Mister Davis.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, everyone, for coming out. Pastor Davis sent to the missionary that spoke, I'll just say amen and amen. Love thy neighbor, something that's been around forever. I mean, one of the places that started was in our church. We had a closet, and they'd come by, what, like every other Thursday or something like that, and of course, it's outgrown all that now, which I'm glad to see that it's been a, and we're very honored and or anything that's helping King George people and even people in the northern neck and other places that need to come here. So thank you for coming out. As far as the, you brought up the water again tonight. I spoke on that extensively last week. I think you were here then too. I can go back to, I'm not going to comment on other stuff tonight, but I can go back to November 24 when I came back from Bay Co and I talked to congressmen and I talked to senators and I talked to other counties and I was in a room where all the discussion was was about water. And I came back here and told everyone, and I told the planning commission, I told EDA, and I told everyone, they're talking about water like it's gold. They're talking about water like it's gold. And everyone looked at me like I'm being emotional or can't be that bad type attitude. And I'm going, they're talking about water like it's gold. You know, and it's been, my stance on that is it's well-documented. You can go back and, you know, people think I do things just to do them. I do not make decisions out of fear. And I do not make decisions out of emotion. I have to look at things where we are today and where we're going to be when I'm off this board, whether it's five years, 10 years, next year, when I leave and pass on to somewhere else, what am I leaving behind the people? I'm not going to make emotional decisions that, well, this is about the kids and everything that we do that just makes, it just makes, that gears your emotions up to start making you make decisions that are just not logical and on a long-term solution. They just don't make sense. And everyone here knows my stance on that, and I talked extensively about that last week. I will take a lot of time tonight, but I do just want to thank everyone for being here and taking part in your community. So thank you for that.

All right. And I'll just echo what my colleagues have said tonight. Thank you all for joining us tonight. The interaction is always fun. It's way more interesting to... to be up here when we're able to hear what's going on with with the folks that we're trying to work for work for. But thank you for doing that. That being said, I'll move on to the next item on the agenda which is the consent agenda can I get ocean for that.

I'll move that we accept the consent agenda as presented.

Probably second. Yeah, this doesn't. And then roll call vote. It's a mess. I just ran out. Mr. Bender? Aye. Mr. Davis? Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries. Constitutional officers, is there any constitutional officers? I don't know why I'm having a stroke up here tonight. Would you like to come join us? Save me? All right. Sounds good. Anyone else? All right. Moving on over to the Board of Directors. Ms. Bender?

Yes, thank you very much. I have a motion on the consent agenda.

I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Is the motion properly seconded? Any discussion? By roll call vote. Mr. Wobotham?

Aye.

Mr. Davis? Aye. Mr. Solms? Aye. Mr. Mett?

Aye.

Chair votes aye. Motion carries. We have no public hearings, but Mr. Mark Boden is here to give us our monthly utility report. Mr. Boden? Good morning.

Good morning. Good afternoon. It's one of those days for all of us. You know how my day's gone. Right. All right. So for the month of July, kind of business as usual. But for the water system, we had two chlorine injection pumps that were replaced, one at the Fairview water treatment plant and the other at Claydale. There's also a water leak on the Owen system that was repaired by the King George County maintenance team, so we appreciate that. And also a well pump that was replaced on one of the Fairview wells. For the wastewater side, for Dahlgren, we brought clarifier number two online that was cleaned and refurbished and brought back online. Hopyard and Perkins, we're kind of talking about, well, one plant now because all flow is, as of now, being sent to Hopyard. receiving flow so that that was a very successful project but we continued supporting the facility upgrades at hop yard decommissioning activities Perkins month of July and also beginning this month of August so happy to report that that was a very successful project still ongoing still some things that need to close out and there's a punch list but contractor and a Wastewater side, Oakland Park, no operational issues. Fairview Beach did have an exceedance of equal coliform. That was a one-time concentration value of 162 in per, that's the number of colony counts per 100 milliliter sample. What that did is it drove an average of sorts, it's called a GFC, above, up to 33. The permit limit is 14. So forward that to DEQ, provided letters of explanation why. The cause of that is issues with the UV disinfection system. Specifically, we had issues with it malfunctioning. Had to replace several of the UV lamps and bulbs. And all the other samples subsequent to that tear were completely fine. They're well within normal. So that's all for wastewater and water for the month of July. Happy to take any questions.

Does anybody have any questions? Go ahead, Mr. Metz.

Just on the disinfection system, is that something we should make sure is in our maintenance plan going forward? It seems like there were several lamps that needed to be replaced.

Sure. So this is an antiquated system. It's no longer supported or made by the manufacturer. And there's processes and checks and routine inspections that our operations do, but it's either all or nothing. And so sometimes malfunctions happen where these lamps will burn out unbeknownst to an operator when . But when it is found, it's identified and corrected. But the problem with this system is it's outdated and no longer supported by the manufacturer. Great. Thank you.

Mr. Roboto. Can I ask another question on that?

And may or may not be your area, right? But so it's outdated. It's stuff's not being made anymore. We naturally know what our inventory evolves for. that actually is? How many spares do we have left? Basically, how much longer life are we going to have?

We are able to keep spare bulbs and spare leaves, and we can still get those, but what we can't get is the control components for these lamps.

Is there any more questions? Go ahead.

My microphone is working. does your entire report go out online with all of the flows and everything like that i'm not sure i believe it does and you're going to talk about the courthouse i was just going to point out that if anybody looks into greater detail at this report you'll note that there were no flows in either the canterbury system or the Purple system during the month of July and this is because we have not transferred the systems of the greater courthouse system. I believe I reported last month, but what you're seeing is the wells that supplied the treatment plants in those two communities are no longer online. Therefore, the greater courthouse system is showing increased production because basically the water we would have pumped out of the ground in either of those two locations is pumped through the courthouse system. That data is a reflection of that, and we are working with the state to transfer the withdrawal permits essentially from the two smaller systems to the bigger system so it becomes a combined operation. I just wanted to make that clear in case somebody noted it. Thanks to you, Mark, for not pointing it out. No, that's fine. That's fine. I just wanted to make sure people saw it.

Thank you so much, Mark.

Thank you. Always appreciate it. Absolutely. My pleasure.

All right. We have no action items, but we have a discussion item. This is the long-awaited surface master plan. Hamilton, you kind of came in at the end of it. You get to present it. The mic, Dan.

all having one of those good morning good afternoon good evening i'm going to try to make this quick if anybody actually saw this report it was there was a link to it released i believe with the agenda i think it's 259 pages i would not expect anybody in this room to absorb that information i'm not sure that i have absorbed all of it but i certainly have reviewed it as chair bender just pointed out the report was really prepared before i was even employed here it was begun in 2024 I think it kind of followed a mandate from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality that was issued in twenty twenty four. Anyway, it was finalized last fall. I reviewed it and provided some comments as so did Chair Bender. And unfortunately, some of those comments and the word draft didn't get removed from the cover page, which caused a little bit of a stall in terms of getting it actually circulated publicly. So if you saw it on the agenda two months ago, the reason it came off is because the word draft was still on it and some dates were wrong and I did not want that to be to be sent out. And now I'm seeing how poorly this is going to translate on a PowerPoint with the screen way over there, which is why I printed it out. I've turned this into nine pages. If anybody's interested in my notes, please reach out. I'd be glad to share this with you. But I'm going to give you quickly the executive summary, a couple of highlights, and then we're going to move on. So Um, among other responsibilities, the programs highlighted on the King George County service already website include reviewing the existing availability of water and investigate an investigation of alternatives for meeting future county needs. And this is what it says on that front slide. I'm sorry to be reading it to you, but I can't see it from here. Um, supporting the improvement, development and expansion of public water and wastewater systems to meet the needs of the county and manage future capital improvement projects and protect, of course, the county's natural resources. So the purpose of this surface water master plan is to evaluate the existing water distribution system conditions, forecast growth, and recommend capital improvement projects that align with the county's short and long-term goals. Bowman Engineering or Bowman Consulting, which is the firm that prepared this report, worked closely with King George County Service Authority staff to develop the surface water master plan with the primary focus of adding a new reliable surface water supply. The county's decision to evaluate a new water supply as a result of recent discussions with the Department of Environmental Quality, maintaining an adequate water supply for its citizens and future economic development. This is not written up on that slide, but this times very nicely with the conversations about current applications from certain organizations to increase their water withdrawals, as well as the 150 page report. that the Department of Environmental Quality recently released about the state of the Northern Virginia groundwater management area. So currently the county totally has a population of around 29,000 people. This was as of December 2024. I'm sure I've sat in some meetings here lately and we're starting to push maybe 30,000. Again, this was a little old. So 120,000 acres and 190 square miles. Bordering the counties of Westmoreland, Essex, Carolina, and Stafford, it's positioned between the Potomac River to the north and the Rappahannock River to the south. Of course, major cities such as Washington, D.C., Richmond are respectively located about 60 miles north and 70 miles south to Richmond. In 2020, the total water system demand of the county was about 820,000 gallons per day, which increased by 9% to 890,000 gallons per day by the end of 2024. The system is split between 11 interdependent water distribution systems, two of which are privately owned and not evaluated under the surface water master plan. Those are both part of Aqua Virginia, so they are not related to this. And then the nine public systems that are owned and operated by the service authority are comprised of a total of 450 approximately miles of water mains, 24 wells, 30 storage tanks, et cetera. So that's kind of the executive summary of this. If you look at the next slide, please, Jackie, and again, folks, I'm sorry this is so far away. This is obviously a map of King George County. This kind of highlights the area where the nine water systems are. In the upper right, the peninsula, it sort of meets the Potomac River Bridge. You can see the Dahlgren system, the Owen system, and the St. Paul's Church system are sort of highlighted in purple there. These again are the distribution systems. The wells and treatment facilities are located nearby. kind of in the center part of the county. Of course, you have the courthouse system, which is now the greater courthouse system, which has Claydale, Circle, and Canterbury. There is an outlier called the Nine system, which is a very small community system. Sorry if I'm not getting this mic properly. Anyway, to the south, you have Harpyard, and then to the, what I'll say is the west, I believe, you have the Oakland Park system, which is over by the industrial park. So those are the major systems shown on this map. Next slide, Jackie. Thank you. They've got this right. No. OK so the next slide just kind of covers forecast growth. There's a table here and obviously a line graph but basically they're predicting some growth based on a number of different factors. By 2025 they were anticipating a 7 percent growth. Well we're already there. We're into 2026. By 2030 the mid growth prediction was roughly 1 percent. The I'm sorry. The mid-growth demand would be about a 1 million gallon day increase for us. It would be about a 7% increase in terms of the overall population served. By 2030, we're anticipating as of the date of this study that it would be about a 21% increase would be required. By 2040, a 42% increase would be required in terms of the million gallons a day that we provide. And then 2050, which of course is still 24 years away or so, we're talking about potentially a 62% increase in the growth of this county in terms of the water demand. So that's what this graph is showing. Next page, next slide please, Jackie, I'm sorry. So this is actually an aerial photo, and you of course note that King George County is highlighted there. I want to say it's in pink. I'm a little colorblind, so bear with me. And of course the green area to the south are the adjacent counties. And the Rappahannock River is kind of bisecting that from the upper left to the lower right. And you will note there are a couple of particularly highlighted areas in the bright pink along the river. Those were basically identified during this study as potential locations for a water treatment facility that would treat surface water as a source. All of our water right now is groundwater. As you've already heard in some other conversations, and you may well be aware, we are at least being encouraged by the state regulators to look at an alternative water source because groundwater is threatened. Surface water would be the sort of logical alternative, and the Rappahannock River is the closest and most likely candidate. The Potomac River would have its own challenges, but To be clear, this was just a very preliminary report. I already received a call from a landowner who said, you're planning on putting a water treatment plant on my property and nobody's talked to me. That's not where we are right now. I explained to him the parameters here. So, you know, the parameters basically said, well, the intake will be located on the Rappahannock River. The intake will be located near service authority assets such as Hop Yard or Oakland Park. The ideal parcel size is between at least 5 to 10 acres to facilitate siting a water treatment facility. And again, this would be a surface water treatment plant. The parcel shall be outside of the FEMA 100-year floodplain. That was not always achievable in this study. The water treatment facility needs to be located within five miles of the Rappahannock River to reduce the raw water intake. In other words, the pipe from where we draw it out of the river, where the actual plant gets built, the longer it is, the more expensive it is. And then the intake shall be at least one mile measuring along the river channel upstream and away from an existing wastewater discharge effluent. I don't think anybody would really advocate having a water treatment facility located near where wastewater is being discharged. That doesn't mean it can't be cleaned and done, but it's not an ideal situation. It means we're immediately susceptible to contamination of that. So that were the parameters that were used to identify potential locations for this. And again, these were just potential pie in the sky not talking about zoning, not talking about cost, anything like that, basically physically, sort of geographically or hydraulically where it would be useful. So the next slide, Jackie, if you don't mind. This just gives a brief overview of what that surface water plant might look like and what the projected cost could be in order to build it. And it's not all inclusive, but it does include the cost of running some additional pipelines. But the diagram, the larger diagram on the left, So it's basically the six stages of a process that would be necessary for advanced surface water treatment. And it would include things like sedimentation basins, membrane filtration systems, additional on-site storage, clear well tanks, et cetera, as well as, of course, chemical treatment. And the rough estimate of this, and it was phased in three ways, and I haven't gone through in this briefing here to explain what the three phases are. but you're looking at roughly $73 million, an extraordinary amount of money. So the last slide, I think there may be two more, I'm sorry. The next slide we're going to skip. You can't read that. That's a breakdown of where the $73 million cost estimate came from. Again, this was in 2024, early 2025 dollars. I'm going to read you the kind of the conclusion statement, and then I'm going to make kind of an overall statement about this. The surface water master plan evaluates current distribution system conditions and actually this was before the 3 projects that are active right now are completed which I'll talk about in a minute. And recommend capital improvements to meet the county short and long term goals. This was developed in collaboration with King George County service already staff the plan emphasizes establishing a new reliable surface water supply. These facilities will represent a major long term initiative to construct a new water treatment facility. and interconnection to the county water system area of service areas. The water treatment facility will allow King George to reduce its reliance on groundwater by up to 90% if it was designed as presented here while position the county to support and attract new development economic goals. The master plan summarizes the analysis of existing and future demand short-term improvement projects and the overall effect of adding new reliable water source on the county's distribution system. And then there's a recommended course of action. So that is a briefing on this document. Again, I'm trying to be cognizant of time here. A 250-page report reduced to nine PowerPoint slides is probably not doing it a real service. But I can tell you roughly 150 to 200 pages of that is copies of every permit and engineering description and everything else that's associated with our existing systems. They're essentially appendices. However, what I will tell you is that I was I'm not employed here until last summer. I became pretty quickly aware of the concerns about groundwater use and potential for surface water supply as an alternative source. I am trying to find other options. The amount of money that it will cost to construct a surface water plant, $75 to $100 million, where are we going to get that money? The amount of money it takes to operate a plant like that over the long term is far greater than using clean groundwater. And of course, as you're hearing, There are other threats to the groundwater resources here in the state of Virginia that, in my belief, did not become a burden of existing residential customers of the King George County Service Authority or its commercial or industrial customers. And those things are going to be a tough battle with the Department of Environmental Quality. But I will say, if you've read the recent report that did come out, that was a long awaited Senate Bill 25, I think, authorized the actual production of the report. The report was completed by DEQ's own staff last winter, but it was not released until about three or four weeks ago, frankly, with some urging from some folks in this room. But what you will see if you look at that report closely is that in the eastern Virginia groundwater management area, essentially everything west of I-95, and keep in mind groundwater does not pay attention to political boundaries, 35% of that groundwater is going to paper mills. Another 30% of that groundwater is going to individual homes that have individual wells that are not really regulated. And then about 26% is being allocated to the existing community service systems, i.e., King George Service Authority and others. Westmoreland, Caroline, all these other counties are in the same boat. We need to rethink our approach to whether or not surface water is the answer or whether we can do something about those other entities that are having strong impacts on our groundwater. The groundwater is 10, or 15, or 20,000 years old since it was a raindrop falling to the Earth's surface. It's inherently much cleaner than surface water. It's not immediately impacted by pollution events, i.e. a wastewater spill on the river that contaminates lots of the river. We need to rethink this. So this surface water plan, it's one facet of our future. It's not written in stone. I don't want to waste too much more time I'm willing to discuss this with anybody at any time there is a lot going on. But 100 million bucks we don't have. And make the state aware that I promise you thank you that the report they didn't have any questions that we have a question.

A lot to take in. Thank you Mister. All right, thank you very much. Yeah. That's up now to your general manager's work.

Different microphone, no slides. Yes, I will try to make it equally as brief. I can find it in the file of stuff I brought today. Yeah, here it is. Anyway, I'm just going to give you some highlights. I submitted a written version of this to the board earlier today. Couple of things to be clear, we're continuing to negotiate with Green Energy Ventures about their MOU in terms of what uses and what they need from us in terms of water and wastewater for their potential data center. We are also talking regularly, meeting monthly now with staff from Rowan Digital, who's the developer who's purchased Dahlgren West. They are committed to something called net water positive. They've actually hired a contractor to do that. The most recent drawings I've seen from what they're talking about will harvest 100% of the rainwater that falls on that property. They are committed to green initiatives, and I think that's a good thing. Their vendor and I have received the notification that was referred to in public comment earlier about Amazon's request to renew their water withdrawal permit, which I will note expired in February of 2026. As one of our, um, citizens pointed out, their current request is for 17,534 gallons per day. 646 million 400,000 gallons. That's a significant amount of water, and they're going to be pulling that from the same time with copper for group that we're using here. So in essence, what I'm pointing out is that it puts us in competition with other industry for groundwater, and I think that's misguided. A couple other things, as Mark and Bowden pointed out, the Perkins Corner Water Main and Forest Main project, which has been ongoing for about a year and a half is essentially 99% complete. There are a few punch list items. But one of the direct results of that is now all flow of wastewater has been diverted from Perkins Corner. The last of that happened last week. There is still a couple months of work to actually decommission the Perkins Corner plant. However, there is no discharge there. So we are no longer discharging wastewater into a creek that actually dumps into the Rappahannock River, which is very good news. The Perkins Corner wastewater treatment plant decommissioning and hop guard upgrades project is still ongoing. That's pushing up on 90% complete. We expect that to be done by the end of October. Other quick highlights. The Dahlgren upgrades project, we are coming up on the 90% design point with our consulting engineer. We expect to have a meeting with them in early September to review that. That is going to address everything that was kind of noted in the original condition assessment that was done a year or two ago. And the good news is that we received news last week officially from the Department of Environmental Quality that we were going to be awarded a $3.5 million grant directly from the state budget for fiscal year 2027 to implement the needed repairs to the Dogger Water Treatment Plant facility as identified in the condition assessment report. um that is the same project that we've already sold four million dollars in bonds on and we had financing to to start work on that and we were working on that but we've received an additional grant and that came directly from in my opinion the advocacy provided by senator stewart that is a grant it's not a loan that is a huge achievement and i personally want to thank senator stewart Maybe he's Mr. Stewart as he's the county attorney tonight or Senator Stewart, but I know for a fact that he got that in the governor's budget. And I spoke with him about that a few weeks ago, how we were going to get that money. And lo and behold, I got a letter from DEQ, an email and a meeting. And that money is there. It's available to us. We're going to have to step through some hoops to get it and spend it wisely, as he told me. But that's extremely good news. Other than that, we have an ongoing project to renew five basically of our water withdrawal permits, which are the same permits that Amazon is trying to renew for their facility. The deadline for submittals was originally July 3rd. We had a comment period back. We provided follow-up information by the 14th of August. That's all done, and we're expecting a response from them within the next 30 to 45 days. we should receive some receipt that will tell us kind of what the draft permit looks like. And that's going to be a real roadmap to what we can afford to anticipate in terms of growth of the King George community as a whole and growth of the service authority as it gains more customers. Last quick or two things. I did attend the planning commission meeting Tuesday night a week ago. I believe it was August the 11th. It seems like it was a month ago, but it was a week ago. And I know some of you were there, but I enjoyed that opportunity. We're going to be coordinating with them on their comprehensive plan renewal. And I think that's oh and last thing the property transfer for Fairview Beach. We're going to settle on that after much ado. It's on schedule right now for next Wednesday. And once I get that done, I will be reaching back out to the Presidential Lakes folks to try and settle on that as well. So I believe that completes my report anybody has any questions of course, I'm glad to answer them and feel free at any time call me or e-mail me I will cancel you answer you as quickly as I possibly can.

Thank you may have the question.

So just for the for the members of the board here if they would is is there any interest by the board at looking at once we get that 3 and a half million dollar grant looking at closing out that 4 million dollar bond. long as we don't have any, because we're paying interest bond right now, and I'd rather not have a bond. I'd rather just use whatever's left over after that grant. Could I say one thing?

Yeah, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Stewart, because there are strict rules about what we can do with that money.

Yeah, and I would imagine grant money has to be probably paid directly to somebody to actually implement something, pay yourself to pay off a bond, but we have a bond that we took out that we haven't used

But we have used some of that money. Some of it. And we're going to need, we're not going to be able to, $4 million is not going to be enough, and neither is $3.5 million. But the two together should be more than enough.

Yeah, just originally we took out four to pay $4 million worth of bill. We got $3.5 million, but we have to $500 million.

That's a good suggestion. Mr. Solon.

We took this thing out. I argued in favor of it because it was brought to us that that's exactly what we could do is apply for various grants. Now, I think this may be a little bit different, but, you know, maybe we tack this on and make other repairs, but I made comments in favor of this because I thought we were going to be pursuing other grants that would use to pay back the bond and not have to increase our community debt for any length of time.

No, I agree. I just saw the letter from DEQ and they were very specific about what you can do with the money and how it has to be allocated. So the other thing I think, Mr. Hamilton, we can actually consider is getting that upgrade so that we can accept septage to make some money for the service authority. That is also possible, I think.

Yeah, I acknowledge that this was a little bit different because the way it came about, but let's not lose sight of how we got this thing started in the first place.

No, I totally understand. I just know that there are boundaries that we have to follow because of guidelines and Mr. Hamilton got that and our finance staff, so. Any other questions?

Be clear we didn't get a check for 3 and a half million dollars there absolutely is going to be a process here and but I understand what you're both saying and I'm going to have continued discussions if that's all right about how to properly spend what we can and maybe save what we can as well.

Next up is the secondary public comment to address media items only for the service authority not for the Board of Supervisors. Comments will be limited to three minutes per person. In order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak, please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comment so that it can be properly recorded and included in the public record. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to come up and speak on the service authority only? Go ahead. You go first and then . You were just stretching, weren't you?

Now it's not. shallow district. So my question is regarding comment that essentially life. That seems like a fairly big risk to me. It's great that we the UV lamps, but have any kind of grossly ignorant of this whole process. But do we have any risk management plan in place? Have we identified the critical components? Any possible replacements for those? Have we reached out to other municipalities that have the old system that are upgrading and saying, hey, can we get parts? I guess what happens when one of those components does go bad?

Thank you. That's a good point.

Anybody else like to come up and speak just on the service authority only? Is there anybody online? Did anybody get correspondence by chance while we were sitting here? Right with that I will a both public comment and look for a German.

We're doing the board of directors to use a September 15 2026 at 5.30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room. There's office located at 1, 0, 4, 4, 5, government billboard in Georgia.

The second emotion probably segment any further discussion. All those in favor say aye. Chair votes aye motion carries we are adjourned for the service authority board of directors Mister song. I think you know.

All right, we have no public hearings or presentations and I will kick it off immediately with action item 0, 8, 0, 8, the cheetah state donation. We can share its office animal shelter.

Thank you Mister chairman. 2 weeks ago I came before the board for a discussion item where King George County is been notified that the estate of John S. Cheadle has designated a charitable donation of $500,000 for the benefit of the Kings Ridge County Animal Control Shelter. The donation is intended to support the shelter's mission of providing care, protection, and services for the animals within the community. It is not intended to replace or reduce the county's regular budgetary appropriations for the animal shelter. In accordance with the council, in accordance with county policy and general acceptance governmental financial practices donations with donor imposed restrictions are designated purposes should be formally accepted by the board of Supervisors before the funds are received and appropriate. On acceptance by the board the donated funds will be recorded as restricted revenue and used solely for the purpose of consistent with the donors intent in any applicable terms of the gift. Acceptance of this donation will have A positive financial impact by providing significant financial support for the animal shelter without requiring the use of County general fund and resources. It's the staff recommendation that the Board of Supervisors except the $500,000 donation from the state of John as she'll for the benefit of King George County animal shelter authorize staff to take all necessary action to receive help for administer the donated fund in accordance with the donors intern and applicable County financial policy.

All right probably second any question. or any questions. Seeing none, roll call vote. Mr. Metz. Aye. Mr. Stroud. Aye. Bender. Aye. Davis. Chair votes aye. Congratulations, guys.

Thank you.

All right, discussion item 0809, Sedgwick Crossing Land Development Additions to Secondary Routes Resolution. Mr. Smolnick.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board. So this is a for you tonight as a discussion item. I know Mr. Matthews is very familiar with this particular road. This is Sedgwick Crossing. There's two roads, Alberta Court 0.11 miles and Sedgwick Court 0.50 miles. They were never accepted into the state system during the big snow storm for the past year. So we've gone through. I want to thank Ms. Fish for her work on this, working with VDOT. writing some administrative letters. We saved the county about $4,000 in administration fees. So good work on that. Got the information back from Mr. Beal that the central office did in fact waive all the fees for these. It will be on the agenda at September 1 as an action item. The standard AM 4.3 resolution or the diagram is in your packet. along with the anticipated resolution that will be before you for action on September one. We'll get these roads into the state system. Questions?

Yes. Thanks, Mr. Malnick. I just want to mention that we've been working with Cedric Crossing, and I want to make sure it's recorded in the public discourse of this item. The history of this goes back some time, and the residents of Cedric Crossing got together, got with VDOT, funded a considerable upgrade that brought that road up to VDOT standards. A lot of signage was added as part of that. What we're asking and what we're talking about in this discussion section is that final step of once the community upgraded the road to VDOT standards, getting it transferred into the state system. That last part didn't occur, and so it did not get cleared in that system. That is correct. Yes, sir.

Sure I just have one more question we we also have a risk of soon the other roads we identified during that snowstorm that could be in the state system.

We are working on those also there I also submitted a waiver request I think it was for melody Lane that was another one. There there are several that we're working through I think that the that follows a similar format.

I know there was one in my district that we found out that it even has a state road sign but at the end of the road is not in the system at the beginning is that makes no sense that there are a couple yes, sir, yes, ma'am and I believe those are those are with the dot right now.

You know this ball with the back in our court now with the particular road, but we are tracking the other ones as well.

The mind. When we talk about roads that should have been operated that's pretty broad and I know there were 2 or 3 that were brought up. over the course of the winter that weren't intended to be brought in and probably won't be anytime soon. Do you mind bringing a list of those when we actually vote on this next time? I just want to be clear. I don't want people to come wintertime going, what the crap?

We thought you were going to take care of us. Absolutely. And what I'll do, I'll have all the roads that we've identified and then a status of where they are and whose responsibility is right now for the next step.

Absolutely.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Fill up for your report.

Okay, county ministries report first of all. I just wanted to clarify I know there was some discussion tonight. The d h d r h t. We're on the letter of support from the Board of Supervisors to my last direction as the county administrator at the last board meeting was to sign a letter in support of that trail. You know there was some discussion tonight about adding some additional things to that. I just want clear direction from the board. Proceed as planned or is there another direction that the board would like me to do?

Monique, I think that it appears to me that Mr. Lynch is coming to the table and they know there's some details that they need to work out. So they know they have the support of the board, but I'd like to see we're all in favor of sending a letter, but there's details that need to be worked out. And I'd like to see those get worked out in a picture of what we fully support.

Go for it.

I guess it's more of a process question. I have no issues signing the letter as written. The feedback we've gotten from the equestrian community has been pretty strong and apparent. And this trail does connect a large percentage of the county from an aspect. I have no issue writing a second letter discussing what we would like to see part of this transition occur access to the equestrian. I think we've got to work out exactly how that would look. Sounds like the equestrian community is happy to help with that. I don't see why we couldn't split these two things out and work them out.

So is understanding what would be required is that Did it come back up for a vote again? Did it come back up for a vote again and it gets revised at a later date? Because right now there's no due date on it. So with no due date, we don't have to submit it until some of these things are resolved or we could hold another vote until they are resolved. There are three issues right now that are outstanding. There are the equestrian issue. There's the gun range issue. And then there's also the adjoining land owners concerns. And these things are all identified in the report that was published in 2022. October 1, 2022 highlights all three of these things. or the 5.41 or in the road here to show suitability as a recreational area for incorporation into the calendar state Park October 1, 2022. The author is the Department of conservation and recreation. These things were identified then and they still are resolved. I still hesitate to sign a letter and sent to the state. There's still no result.

Mister chair, my question is how many times are we going to vote on it. I mean, it was up, it was reneged up. I think the two letters is good, but we're going back to that study that Mr. Stroud talks about. That study was done in anticipation that the county was going to take over this trail. And there are issues, I mean, with the equestrian community. I've heard from many people, besides Dog Park, they would love to have venues for equestrian, especially like riding rings. I don't know the exact term for it. places people can store their horses better. I'd love that. I'm very big on the sports tourism and agritourism and recognizing the outdoors of King George between two rivers. But how many times are we going to keep sending letters back and then reneging and not reneging on a letter? The one issue I don't think we ever can resolve is the property owners. The federal government eminent domain their land 70 years ago. How are we going to fix that? I don't think as a county we can fix that. I wish we could. I wish we could give it back to all the landowners that the eminent domain allowed to purchase back. But how many times are we going to go over this topic?

Real quick. No one's asking for a re-vote. So we're not asking for a re-vote on it. There's also no time frame at which we have to send the letter. What we're saying is do we give them time to resolve these issues so the letter fully supports the whole picture of what we want to do. There's no re-vote. And I would suggest that there's a fourth issue, which was brought up, and Terry Bowden brought it up last time and supported me in it, is if what, it had to be clear from the state, if the state did buy that property but did not have the funds to put park rangers on it and maintained it, would they still allow volunteers to service that trail or would they simply shut it down And not allow anybody, even the landowners, to cross their land. They have to go five, ten miles around to their side to get their property. No one can come through here but a game warden. It happens in Virginia. And if he brought up the point the other day, it happens here all the time. So what happens under those circumstances? So if the state did buy it, they don't have the money to do anything with it, and they shut it down, and we don't have a trail anymore. And then landowners are really mad because now they've got the state with a piece of property. They can't even cross over it. That's the 4th issue that needs to be dealt with in sending this letter. I'm all in support of sending the letter. But there's no time stamp on it and I think that if the parties have come to the forefront to want to work out some of these details, why not allow them the time to work out the details? That's my only point on that.

Yes, sir. I just want to clarify that Ms. Bender said that the county was going to purchase the park, but what I referenced is the General Assembly. That's the state. General Assembly of Virginia passed House bill 30 item 3075 K directing the Virginia Department of Conservation Recreation to review the properties of the Dargan Road Heritage Trail. And the recommendation was the suitability added the state park system. So this is not referring to and the things are referred to work. The county purchasing it was to get it into the state system and look that up. Thank you.

Yeah.

I'm just rep time I thought you were referring to the study you read from the last time and that was when did it was thought that maybe it would come into the county system so if you are referencing something new I will have to look it up.

Yeah, that's fine.

They were watching. Now, what I wanted to bring up is last night at that meeting I got to go to, and very good meeting, cautiously optimistic. One of the things that concerns me is I've been on the letter for years. The previous letters had indicated horseback riding, yet the website still says no horseback riding for the trail itself. We talked last night a little bit about that, and a question was asked, well, why do you have to have this before it goes into the state park? Well, I asked the question, okay, you repeatedly said there's some 20 other trails out there that allow horseback riding, right? Have you looked to ask the question, how often or ever do the bike riders, rollerbladers, joggers, whatever, push back and say, get those nasty horses out? Does that ever happen? Because if it does, and we enter this thing in the state park system without horseback riding, guess what? It's never going to be added. But if we do it before this, and the point that I made was, in doing this, it is a show of good faith that you, the friends of the trail, will advocate as much on behalf of the horseback riding as you are on behalf of the bike riders, the joggers, and whatnot. And so I'm in favor of sitting on this thing until the rules committee or whatever they're calling it comes up with something. One of the things that came out last night was Mr. Lim and Mr. Lynch said, hey, okay, why don't y'all come together, make some rules for what it would look like to include horseback riding on the trail, and we'll talk about it. Okay, cool. Let's see what comes from that before we go send yet another letter that's going to ignore the horseback riding clauses.

The term only question is there was 3 other issues and how do we resolve all 4 issues in my if if that's the case that we might as well not even write a letter at all.

I have an answer to that we're not going to resolve the. In a moment I don't think anybody's looking to try to give back those those property. The issue is that the property owners being able to. their land, cross the trail, get to the other side of their property, stuff like that, without an issue. There have been complaints where signs have been put up and people were told that they could not cross the trail or encroach on the trail because, for whatever reason.

Yep.

I'll belabor this, sir, but I agree. I don't think we're going to resolve that. I don't think we necessarily need to resolve that before the letter goes forward. the word miss bender and i don't think that'll be resolved by us but what some of the things you're referring to those there are properties the state identified that where they want to dish it's because they call it like a trail heads where i guess maybe it's where it crosses roads or something and uh it may need additional parking areas and those are the places that they probably need to focus on on getting to those landowners and working with them because right now i have constituents that have that problem now with people parking on our land and they have to go tell them look you're you're not your own private property and people say oh i thought i was on the park and or i thought it was on the trail and they're not so that those are the ones that they probably need to really focus on i think they could do that okay so since everybody else has gotten there go back let me quote you on what you just said i don't think we're going to resolve those issues

What I voted for and four of us voted for was to write a letter of support, not a letter saying we've resolved all the issues. In the letter, it says there's work to be done. Heck, we could sign the letter referencing the state study and say, we hope that you can resolve those issues. We have no authority to resolve those issues. We have an authority to write a letter of support. That's what we voted for. And thank you for the reminder that all future motions should include

All right. What do you want to do?

Issues I was talking about for the intimate domain. Be clear.

Yes, we signed the letter we agreed to.

I like it. The trail, the people of the trail right now are going out of the way to put together a meeting with members that are of concern, especially the equestrian people, and give them time to what they have to do and solve that. And it sounds like that's going to be a pretty timely manner. And what Mr. Stroud was saying is we're not going to solve every single issue, but there are some issues that we can solve before that.

So just to clarify, Mr. Stroud put that meeting together, the trail folks just showed up. I agree with you. But just to clarify, he made that meeting happen. All right.

Revisited on 1 October, or I mean first meeting in October and gives them like 60 days. Well, maybe you ought to give them some time to resolve some of the issues and then look at it then.

I think a good compromise, I think we're kind of at an impact. A good compromise I think is what Mr. Metz mentioned earlier. Let's go ahead press on with what we've voted and agreed to do and then if need be in 60 days will come back in a jerk readdress that letter if necessary. Y'all y'all good with that.

That means that in 60 days or however long you're going to change the language and say what we don't agree with them anymore because they haven't done these things absolutely.

The 60 days that came from that end of the table, I grabbed onto that and ran with it. I don't necessarily mean we give them 60 days to get it sorted out, but what timeline should we place on this?

I'm good with the 60 days. I'm just saying that what I heard was send this letter and then If these things don't get addressed in 60 days, we're going to go back and change our mind and tell the state, no, we don't agree anymore.

That's my understanding of the intent. Is that what you meant? I'm simply saying that let's send a letter that we have now.

We can send a separate letter, not about support or not support, but we could address it to DCR, address it to whatever state agency we think needs to be, reminding them, hey, look, these issues were pointed out in the that 2020 that you know please continue to reengage it's not I'm just trying to figure out what our authority here is right we are not a property owner we don't run the group that's setting the rules you know the best we can do is is letters of support and legislative affairs input as the county provide input to DCR. That's what I'm struggling with, right, is that what action? I mean, like, great, cool. I'm glad the equestrian community is meeting with the people that set the rules for the HRT. That's good.

Cool. Let's let that play out, right?

Who wrote the letter? Who administration staff draft the letter we sent you know there's a direction from Mister song to have Mister Stroud review that the format of that letter we contain Mister Stroud confirm that the content letter was sufficient. And so it is here the compass is the we believe is the will and the vote of the board at the last meeting.

I have a question on that. I would like in the future it be sent then to the whole board to read it because I never read it.

So in draft form we can send that out to the board.

Is it not something that you can just add equestrians into the letter? I'm just really confused. It's been in there for the last two or three times. So I'm just trying to figure out why we can't just put it back in there from the original thing and yes, sign the letter and go forward. I just don't understand why you can't just add it in there.

What we will do is we will send the draft out to all 5 board members. And then we can receive edits. But my direction right now is to, I've received direction from the board to sign a letter. And I just want to make sure that I'm doing my job of, you know, the motions, the thoughts, the views of this collective board are met in that letter. So we will send this out to you. I'll have Ms. Fish send it out to all 5 board members. I will not find it. And we can talk about this. At the next meeting make sure that the views of all board members that were discussed and voted on last meeting are are captured by the text.

I would agree that because it seems this time it wasn't.

But your direction on that. Thank you.

All right. We go with that.

That the rest of your report and I've got a few other items there. So we're going to be at the first responders breakfast tomorrow Fredericksburg real excited to do that believe we're gonna have some other individuals. And it's also so real excited to do that while I'm on first responders I want to give a shout out to you know I like it when my staff gets creative we had a recent to see IP we always have an ambulance replacement every year that you see. Now this is not the case every year, but Chief Moody and his staff evaluated one of their units over there, and instead of a complete, a brand new unit, it will be a remount and an overhaul of one of their existing ambulances. They've looked at, again, it's not going to be the case every time, but in this particular case, $400,000 was in the CIP. They're going to do the remount, overhaul, and rechassis for a little over $327,000. So $73,000 was saved through this initiative. So I like when my staff gets creative, and this was a good savings of some CSP funds. So I want to applaud Chief Moody and his staff on that particular issue. A couple things, update the coil for the library, the AC unit. It has been running, just not running full speed. There's been a sprinkler on it to keep it from freezing and shutting down altogether. Coil was received today. Again, as I stated at the last meeting, we are subject to lead times. Ms. LaValle, the elevator, as I stated at the last meeting, that is being designed by Otis. We're waiting for those parts, as is the HVAC system is through engineering and is being constructed. But we are subject to their lead times. But the library, there will be a brief shutdown as the refrigerants drained and the new coil will be installed hopefully by the end of the week. On an economic development front, we heard, I think it was a couple meetings ago, we were talking about the food truck Tuesdays that we have, Grub Truck Tuesdays. This is where we invite food trucks to set up shop in front of the admin building. I believe it was a caller said, well, what are we doing for brick and mortar? So your economic development staff heard the brick and mortar. So what we're coming up with is a Tasty Tuesdays. So it's identical to what we offer food trucks. So this will be going out in our economic development newsletter, I believe, by the end of this week. And my staff will be visiting every brick and mortar. And it's not the intent to get the McDonald's, the Chick-fil-A's, the Taco Bell's there. These are the smaller independent restaurants. And to give them the same opportunities that food trucks have. The logistics is on the restaurant itself. But to set up shop just like we invite the food trucks so our mortar brick and mortar restaurants will have that same opportunity. So I wanted to let the public know that staff heard the concerns and we've addressed it. And I think it's going to be a great initiative. If we can do the food truck rodeo, if businesses participate in this, the brick and mortar, I would love to do a very similar thing where all the brick and mortars get to come. and set up shop so they can actually have two places to sell their goods on a certain day. So real excited to have this. And if you own a brick and mortar restaurant, we will be seeing you soon to invite you to participate in this. August, let's see here. So Isaac Luthold, the gentleman with Hanwha Renewables, he called me yesterday. So I did want to let the public know that application is complete. It is in. It is reflected on the project's map. And also, the project website is up, gibsonsolarva.com. This is a complete website of how to contact them. Any questions, information, again, gibsonsolarva.com for what was the Gibson Solar project. It's still called Gibson Solar, but new owner, Hanwha Renewables. Lastly, we've got, I know we're going to be adjourning to a board retreat on August 24, Monday morning. at AP Hill. I did want to let the public know that this is open to the public obviously. It is a public meeting. There's been a form on the county website for individuals to obtain access to the base. You can also do and there was a date of I think August 17th to be submitting. That is just to streamline the process. I want to let the public know that they can show up to Main Gate, the visitor center which is behind the tanks there on 301. Get access to the base and then it is a there is some construction at main gate So you need to use this they'll they'll direct you but it's about 15 minute ride to get to the hill conference center because you have to go around through the base So again, this is open to the public anybody wants to come they can Take their driver's license for the visitor center there behind the the tanks on 301 and get access to that particular venue That's all I have any questions from the board I do we have we have this is that.

I don't have a question sure it's one of every year. Accolades is that the our department will set a short notice very short notice almost a surprise inspection from the Virginia pharmacy board and had a at a new deficiency finding for their pharmacy the ea and control substance pharmacy there's there's no deficiency that Be laudable. Very good. Thank you for bringing it up, sir.

And then lastly, thank you, Mr. Stewart. So the land use, if you like, would you like to?

Sorry, Mr. Chairman, but he has an opportunity. I added this last minute under his report. You all asked that I bring extended land use where people have to apply every five years. Because that's what's . I made a few changes in there besides the five years for your consideration. Currently, there was a $10 fee plus $0.10 per . That gave me a little concern because short of having a . Somebody determined it wasn't done properly. I made it a flat ten portion and in this it would also require the Commissioner then that revalidation form in regular tax bill every five years seemed to me get a tax bill easy put that fill that form out when you that's for y'all's just for your knowledge tonight and if that you want to go have to have a public here? Tell us when you're ready and have a public here.

Mr. Smartick, so I appreciate what you guys are trying to do for local restaurants, doing that. I would bring up, though, that a lot of the small mom-and-pop restaurants around here, there's one person who cooks in that kitchen every single day. And they're probably not going to want to shut down their shop to go relocate out. What would probably be a better idea, or I wouldn't say better, but I did, would be to, you know, like Frank's, but they have like restaurant week and they advertise for those restaurants and they do special dishes that aren't usually on the menu. We could do a restaurant Friday or a restaurant Monday and through the county website advertise this is what dishes these restaurants are protesting are going to have. It'd be something that's not usually on the menu, something like that to just bring people in the door. And that way they don't have to leave the brick and mortar to go somewhere else. It's not as convenient for them as a food truck.

So additionally, that's a good point. In our newsletter coming up, Fall Flavors Week October 1 through October 11, the countywide restaurant week leading up to Fall Fest. Participating restaurants will offer special fall themed menu items, discounts. Customers will submit receipts for participating businesses will be entered to win local prizes. Keep them in those shops. So that is another initiative that will be going out in our economic development newsletter. And I can appreciate, you know, sometimes Yeah, there's only one person cooking, but there are other things that we are doing to promote the businesses in their place of venue. But we want to make sure that we are, in fact, treating. If there's an opportunity to come to the courthouse, we want to open up to everybody. So that's what we're doing.

Appreciate that. And we push things like on the county website, like agritourism, and we push those businesses to the forefront. But there's probably more we can do for the local restaurant, right, as far as pushing them out there. This is what's going on. The other thing I want to bring up is it came to my attention that the county, because I know most of the land that the county owns, I think, but it came to my mind that King George, there was a property donated years ago on 218, which people that are from here call Cow Don Road. But is that, so what I'm trying to figure out is I'd like to get a list. I think it'd be helpful for all of us if we had a list of all the properties that are owned by the county and owned by the schools. If that we know because there's some they're just kind of off the grid that people passed away and left to us that we don't know that we have them be nice for us to kind of know where some of these properties are what we have been what our real assets are okay.

I agree with that that that it was donated and it's about school.

We will work on that with the county the schools in the service of the word that be helpful as we know and then just one last thing here while we're on the local restaurants, the other thing that will be coming out We've got an idea, a fall feast food showcase. This is a new concept. I like participating in local restaurants, food businesses, having a special dish. And we're thinking like a Thanksgiving feast where working with these particular restaurants, if you've got a particular dish that you want to sell, bring them all together and realize our central location for the businesses to sell their products. We're not sure if it's going to be ticketed or how we're going to do that, but this is a concept that we're working on to promote unity amongst our restaurants and showcase our local businesses and get them the exposure to our citizens and our guests alike.

Well, I liked your idea of the lottery with the receipts and whatnot, but that still encourages maybe visiting one restaurant. And we issue like a kind of a passport book and whoever has the most passport, you know, going to the most restaurants that day for, Not a full meal, but, you know, some unique dish or whatever. The ones that have the most stamps in their passport book get a prize or, you know, if there's multiple people that fill their book, okay, they all get a prize. It doesn't have to be huge. You could pay their taxes for that quarter or something.

Mr. Sons, I think maybe you want to come work for us because that's what we're working on right now. It's going to be something where you come in and you hit a QR code to say I was here or upload your receipt to track.

Nice. And what about you paying their taxes for them if they win? Maybe not.

All right.

I like that plan. All right. You all done this time? Excellent. Oh, we got to do public comment first. Yeah. But not yet. Secondary public comment to address meeting items only. Comments will be limited to three items per person, I'm sorry, three minutes per person in order to afford everyone an opportunity to speak. Please provide your full name and district when submitting your public comments that would be properly recorded included in the public record is there anyone who would like to make public comment. Ladies first.

Afternoon again. My name is Barbara gay.

Is there a way that in your own.

Come up with a bulletin type of bulletin they have all The names of of establishment in the area in one location, you know create like a bulletin it so people know the things that going on in teams or is that a possibility.

We looked at something along those lines trying to have a kiosk that in different locations, but it was cost prohibitive. There is a private privately run Facebook page out there that's got the schedule of everything going on in King George. I assume she still does that. It's a friend of the board that used to do that. I assume it's still out there. Unfortunately, because it's a Facebook thing, she just throws things in as she's aware of it, so there's no way to search it, and it's not necessarily in chronological order.

I'm saying, like, people coming through King George don't know nothing about King George. They're not going to look at Facebook and have something.

Oh, you're talking through traffic.

Yeah.

Website. Yeah. That's about all we got.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. Come on up.

Nathan Hoy, Shiloh District. To poke the bear, because we're subject, but with the trail, And I'm just going to speak from my own perspective. What I see is a private landowner going to the state, and we're doing a letter of support. Does the state actually care what we have to say? To me, it seems like there's this general assumption that maybe they do, and maybe they actually consider our input. I mean, is there any realism to the fact that we're going to change anything to it? Otherwise, like, Everybody can just write their own letter. That's all. Thank you. Anybody else?

I just want to remind you that the letter of support opens up revenue from outside organizations to actually look at what they can do. Sometimes without that letter of support, they're not even considering the project. So in order to open up funding for maintaining the trail or studying the trail, they have to have that letter of support, something that I've learned through being on the FAMPO committee. The other part is I understand the concerns about the neighboring landowners, but on the Planning Commission, and you guys as well, sometimes have to make tough decisions, because the people that own the land adjacent can do what they want with it. And it's probably not a very popular perspective, but if the person that owns the trail wanted to put a fence down the whole thing, they wouldn't want to have access across it, and that's their right. That's unfortunate. But putting it into a position where it may be taken over by the state park. It's not the worst thing that could happen. That's another thing that I've heard you guys say well it's not this and what so I stated when I was up here before that I'm in support of you guys sending a letter reporting the trail being turned over to the state. I think that that can open up the best week.

Anyone else. When receiving a course on this. This is going to be a lot. All right the time out close secondary public comment. You're a boy.

I know that the King George board of supervisors convened closed session pursuant to the new code to die to dash 3, 7, 1, 1, a 7 for consultation with legal counsel and breaking by staff member to take the actual ongoing litigation involving a W S. We can buy step or I'm sorry where such can cause patient briefing in open means what diversity affect the kind of litigation and negotiating posture about the county administrator general manager. Director Lee robot them the county attorney is needed because they're being that's there in our their presence will really aid the board in consideration of one or more of the topics to be discussed for so to begin to go to section 2 dot 2 dash 3, 7, 1, 2, that.

The second the new discussion and all in favor say aye aye. Chair votes aye. We're in closed session.

Imagine waking up to the sounds of nature. Then your adventure begins. Explore the banks of the Potomac. Experience the bounties of the Rappahannock. Unwind and reconnect with nature. Uncover stories of innovation and transformation. Challenge yourself to exhilarating trails. Plan for unexpected memories in King George County. Nature, history, trails. Find it all between the rivers. Welcome to King George, Virginia, where rural charm offers an escape from the ordinary. Enjoy the charisma of a local coffee shop and delight in authentic diner classics. Sip and sample the many flavors of the farmer's market. Snack on locally grown produce at a farm store. If you share, you may just make new friends. Discover hidden treasure. And spark a new passion along the way. Expand your palette with global flavors made from local ingredients. Gear up to reel in your own big catch. Or indulge in fresh river bounties without the wait. Kick back and relax with a crisp cider or a refreshing Riesling. Enjoy great company over a superb glass of wine. And refresh yourself with a chilling slushie. Recharge with the perfect slice. Experience new events and meet new people. Unwind with the coldest draft on tap. Breathe in the country air and raise a glass to unforgettable moments in King George County. eat, drink, shop. Enjoy it all between the rivers. Imagine waking up to the sounds of nature. Then your adventure begins. Explore the banks of the Potomac. Experience the bounties of the Rappahannock. Unwind and reconnect with nature. Uncover stories of innovation and transformation. Challenge yourself to exhilarating trails. Plan for unexpected memories in King George County. Nature, history, trails. Find it all between the rivers. Welcome to King George, Virginia, where rural charm offers an escape from the ordinary. Enjoy the charisma of a local coffee shop and delight in authentic diner classics. Sip and sample the many flavors of the farmer's market. Snack on locally grown produce at a farm store. If you share, you may just make new friends. Discover hidden treasure. And spark a new passion along the way. Expand your palette with global flavors made from local ingredients. Gear up to reel in your own big catch. Or indulge in fresh river bounties without the wait. Kick back and relax with a crisp cider or a refreshing Riesling. Enjoy great company over a superb glass of wine. And refresh yourself with a chilling slushie. Recharge with the perfect slice. Experience new events and meet new people. Unwind with the coldest draft on tap. Breathe in the country air and raise a glass to unforgettable moments in King George County. eat, drink, shop. Enjoy it all between the rivers. Imagine waking up to the sounds of nature. Then your adventure begins. Explore the banks of the Potomac. Experience the bounties of the Rappahannock. Unwind and reconnect with nature. Uncover stories of innovation and transformation. Challenge yourself to exhilarating trails. Plan for unexpected memories in King George County. Nature, history, trails. Find it all between the rivers. Welcome to King George, Virginia, where rural charm offers an escape from the ordinary. Enjoy the charisma of a local coffee shop and delight in authentic diner classics. Sip and sample the many flavors of the farmer's market. Snack on locally grown produce at a farm store. If you share, you may just make new friends. Discover hidden treasure. And spark a new passion along the way. Expand your palette with global flavors made from local ingredients. Gear up to reel in your own big catch. Or indulge in fresh river bounties without the wait. Kick back and relax with a crisp cider or a refreshing Riesling. Enjoy great company over a superb glass of wine. And refresh yourself with a chilling slushie. Recharge with the perfect slice. Experience new events and meet new people. Unwind with the coldest draft on tap. Breathe in the country air and raise a glass to unforgettable moments in King George County. eat, drink, shop. Enjoy it all between the rivers. Imagine waking up to the sounds of nature. Then your adventure begins. Explore the banks of the Potomac. Experience the bounties of the Rappahannock. Unwind and reconnect with nature. Uncover stories of innovation and transformation. Challenge yourself to exhilarating trails. Plan for unexpected memories in King George County. Nature, history, trails. Find it all between the rivers. Welcome to King George, Virginia, where rural charm offers an escape from the ordinary. Enjoy the charisma of a local coffee shop and delight in authentic diner classics. Sip and sample the many flavors of the farmer's market. Snack on locally grown produce at a farm store. If you share, you may just make new friends. Discover hidden treasure. And spark a new passion along the way. Expand your palette with global flavors made from local ingredients. Gear up to reel in your own big catch. Or indulge in fresh river bounties without the wait. Kick back and relax with a crisp cider or a refreshing Riesling. Enjoy great company over a superb glass of wine. And refresh yourself with a chilling slushie. Recharge with the perfect slice. Experience new events and meet new people. Unwind with the coldest draft on tap. Breathe in the country air and raise a glass to unforgettable moments in King George County. Eat, drink, shop. Enjoy it all between the rivers.

I move that King George County Board of Supervisors return to the public meeting.

Second. Properly seconded.

All in favor?

Aye. I move that the King George County Board of Supervisors is certified by both only public business matters lawfully exempt from open meeting required by Virginia law and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered during the closed meeting and no action was taken.

Second. Second. Mr. Metz. So certified.

So certified.

So certified. Mr. Davis. So certified. Chair certifies. Back in open.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion.

Yes, ma'am.

I move to request General Manager of the Service Authority, Dan Hamilton, to send DEQ a letter requiring a public hearing for the Amazon withdrawal from the Potomac Aquifer, especially considering DEQ has told King George they will have to seek water from the Rappahannock River.

Second. Motion properly seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. Motion carries.

Chair. Make a motion that the board adjourned more to buy the journey to Monday on the 24th 2026 at 9.00AM in the Hill conference center building. 1327 for a p hill Virginia to do 4 to 7.

Second second probably second in discussion. You know now a favor say aye aye aye we're going.